Timbers Preview: The Premiership visits the rose city

The Manchester City logo. Yes, folks, EPL soccer is coming to town on Saturday night!!

The Portland Timbers are gearing up to play their last game in Portland for a while, as the team gets ready to embark on a 4 game, 3 week road trip that will send them to Vancouver BC, St. Louis, Tampa and Rochester. Before they venture out, though, they host one of England’s most storied clubs on Saturday, July 17 as Manchester City visits on the first stop of their American tour. The game is at University of Portland’s Merlo Field, starting at 7 PM.

How big of a deal is it to get Man City to visit? It’s one of the more significant opponents to visit Portland to play a match. While Portland has seen its share of English clubs that have agreed to play friendlies here, it’s usually been lower division sides (Coventry City and Preston) or recently promoted clubs to the Premiership (Sunderland and Burnley). In this instance, Manchester City has been in the premiership since 2002 and has experienced recent success in open competition and staying out of relegation danger. Portland is also the lowest division club that the Blues will face on their tour, as they play Tottenham, NY Red Bulls and Sporting Lisbon in a tournament in the Big Apple, then finish by playing Inter Milan in Baltimore and Club America in Atlanta.

What do the teams have to gain from this exhibition? For Manchester City, the purpose is simple: prepare for their upcoming season and evaluate players’ fitness and skill to determine who will make the first team. The English season starts in mid-August, so manager Roberto Mancini will be looking to play as many players as possible to see what he has in uniform.

For the Timbers, they get a chance to play against a club with deep and talented roster to see how they match up. It’s also a chance to keep sharp with a break in the USSF D2 league schedule before their road trip next week. We will also get to see other players continue to work back from injury, such as Johan Claesson, Keith Savage and Quavas Kirk. With the team staring at plenty of dates away from Portland, having their entire roster available for selection will be important to give them the best chance to earn results.

View full sizeMerlo Field, Portland OR. One of the best venues in the city, and the facility that will host the Portland Timbers and Manchester City on Saturday night.

Why is the game being played at Merlo Field instead of PGE Park? The simple answer is really scheduling, as Manchester City has other matches next week, and the Portland Beavers have a home game on Saturday night at PGE Park. However, it is also known that some English clubs are not fans of turf fields because of potential injury, so they prefer to play on natural grass whenever possible. While the PGE Park turf isn’t nearly as bad as some artificial surfaces, it’s still not real grass and with Merlo available, the site choice made sense. The Timbers will be addressing this problem next season with an improved version of Field Turf that is being installed.

Is there still a chance I can get a ticket? Because of the smaller venue, the Timbers have made tickets for this match available only to season ticket holders as part of their purchase. However, it’s still possible to scrounge up a ticket, as various individuals have listings on StubHub, craigslist or eBay for those interested in paying for them. The Timbers also released a few hundred extra tickets for purchase by season ticket holders earlier this week, so there are a few available before the event. Needless to say, if you are willing to pay a bit, there are available ones floating about if you check around.